


Lafitte's Guardian

by Merfilly



Category: Sackett Series - Louis L'Amour
Genre: Community: spook_me, Gen, Pirates, Sea Monsters, Spook Me Multi-Fandom Halloween Ficathon, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 12:57:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21179813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Falcon's first trip to the treasure introduces him to its guardian.





	Lafitte's Guardian

**Author's Note:**

> Set against the backstory for _Lando_.

Lafitte's gold was near. If I just held my course, I'd have it soon enough, for Duval had told me all of it, and then I'd find Locklear and the Tinker to settle the deal made.

"Dare you to brave the curse upon the pirate's gold?" came a whisper soft voice, when moments before I would have sworn I was alone. I whirled about to see, my hand slipping toward my Colt Paterson on my hip.

What I found was a woman, unnaturally pale in the moonlight, hair dark as the sea, clothing made up of pieces that didn't seem to fit altogether like most women would choose.

There were no footprints behind her, and I knew both fear and hope in that moment.

Duval had spoken of a protector, one tied to the ship that had sunk, bound to the treasure it had carried. Lafitte himself had put the treasure under the protector's care, Duval had said. What manner of protection, he had not been willing to say, his eyes going more white with fear than when we'd faced his attackers.

"Lafitte was a man of charm," Duval had warned me, "as you yourself are. Might be the key."

The words stayed with me now, as I took in the little signs. Fabric damp but not soaked, hair full of curl but with a slick sheen that said it was dampened as well. How the trousers and skirt had been worked so it covered her full legs right to the sand.

A river-man, that was what I'd made of myself when I came out of my home in the hills of Tennessee. Didn't mean I wasn't educated, a bit, about the sea those rivers touched, and I knew my life was forfeit if I failed to find the right words for this dangerous creature of the deep.

"I thought I might use some of the gold to set my life in order, yes'm," I told her as honest as I could. "I've two partners looking for the same, but I'm the one that made it here. So I'd be needing to take as much as three men need for starting their better lives, yes."

I don't know if it was my honesty or the fact I was holding my ground and moving my hand away from the Colt that made her tip her head, and then slip a small smile in place.

That smile made me feel more aware of her and certain notions of my own about the fairer sex. I firmly reined that in like a recalcitrant mule and focused on her eyes. "I'd actually like to know more of the story behind the treasure, Miss, if you'd care to share a bit?"

The woman moved to the right, circling me a bit, and if that wasn't a good guide to where the gold was, I was nothing but a worthless Higgins.

"You would listen to how a pirate and rogue such as Lafitte and his captain Cook managed to make off with such a treasure?" she enticed.

"If'n you know the story, Miss, that would suit me fine. Or, perhaps in meeting you, I'd be more interested in how Lafitte came to be of use to you, that you worry over the treasure at all on his behalf. Man's been dead some twenty odd years, in case you'd not heard."

"He has his price to pay, and I am aware." She continued to walk, but moved backwards. "Come then, and I will speak as we walk."

What was there for it but to obey? I was dead if I offended this woman, I knew in my bones. At least if I walked, I'd maybe see the gold that had caused so many deaths already.

"It was a small port," she began, and I heeded her words even as I watched the lay of the land, aware we walked on the soggiest part of the sands, keeping her ever in contact with the water so near at hand.

"Before the Americans won his aid by suborning his brother, Lafitte traveled many of the isles and passages, not always without mishap. And, one storm-driven night, he misstepped, and was swept to the sea. Being wise to the sea, he did not fight the embrace, but found a piece of flotsam to hold strong to.

"So it was that he was swept into my cay, whereupon he excused himself to me for his disheveled appearance and inability to entertain me as befits a lady of my standing." Here the fey creature actually laughed, and it was the sweetest music I'd heard outside the hills of my own family's claiming.

"I had heard he was a gentleman of good taste," I told her. "Nor does the tale end there, I'd wager."

She looked at me with that enchanting smile, and I yet again had to have a talk with bits of my nature that needed to stay tied down.

"No. I assured him he was perfectly to my tastes, as it had been some time since I dined so well," she said, that smile showing sharp teeth now, and my blood ran colder than any ardor I might have felt a moment past.

"You prefer your meat fresh then, not the carrion that our last battle left some several coves back?" I managed to say around the new found feeling of fear in my chest.

"Oh that will do, if I must. But fresh, to taste the warmth of the blood in the veins… that is a treat in itself."

How was I to handle this, knowing I was on the edge of the blade now with this beast's appetite?

"Knowing the tales of Lafitte, I'd say he offered you a future favor against letting him have his life then, and he made good on it?" I reasoned, and saw her show surprise again.

"You are nearly as intelligent as the famed wandering sailor of Ithaca," she mused aloud.

"Oh, no, Miss. Just someone who listens for the truth of tales." I gave her my best grin as I said it. "It would be cheating to go the way he did, I think, Miss. And yet what else can I barter to you, to prove my truth is as I said? I want the gold, but only enough to start my life anew with a bride I mean to have, and that which will aid my two companions in this venture."

The fey woman of the sea gave a sharp-toothed smile then. "You will let the remainder remain?"

I nodded. "Perhaps I'd come, learn more tales from all you have seen, to take a bit more over the years. In doing so, I'd spread rumors of the treasure, surely luring others this way to find it, ones that might not be as strong on conversation as I am."

She moved of a sudden, mere inches from me and I realized with a start that she was near of a height with me. "Promise me that, Falcon Sackett, and I shall let you go your way to whatever fate holds for you."

I ignored the sweat rolling down my spine, the curdling fear in my heart, and met her eyes fully. Dark eyes, full of the sea, deep with death and mystery… and I saw a respect there before she pressed cold lips to mine. A chill shot down my spine, and I closed my eyes despite the idiocy of it.

When I opened them, she was gone… and the moon glinted on something metal ahead.

I'd just count myself lucky, and leave this bit out when I caught up to the Tinker and Locklear.


End file.
